 |
Wi-LAN Acquires Essential Wireless Patent Portfolio
OTTAWA, Canada -- September 14, 2007 -- Wi-LAN Inc. (or "Wi-LAN") announced today that it has acquired a portfolio of 10 issued and pending U.S. patents which are essential to multi-mode and multi-standard communication devices. WI-LAN believes the inventions protected by these patents are used in U.S. products which combine multiple standards and modulation formats. This means that U.S. products which combine two or more wireless formats, including GSM, CDMA, WiFi, WiMAX or EDGE, will generally require a license. “We believe these patents have several claims that would be infringed by most cellular handsets sold in the United States today,” said Andrew Parolin, VP Business Development. “What is particularly exciting is that we believe GSM/Edge cell phones, which is a format used by most GSM phones sold in the U.S. today, will require a license.” The portfolio purchase was brokered through the law firm of Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg, LLP for a purchase price of U.S. $7,000,000 with the potential of additional consideration of up to U.S. $4,000,000 based on meeting certain licensing milestones. The patents expire August 10, 2019. The portfolio is not heavily licensed. Current licensees include Nokia and Siemens. "This acquisition is an important milestone for Wi-LAN and a great success for our patent acquisition team,” said Jim Skippen, President and CEO. Our strategy is to continually acquire valuable patents to increase the value proposition for licensees and to ensure that our licensing program can continue indefinitely. We believe this essential wireless portfolio greatly increases the strength of our existing WiFi, CDMA and WiMAX portfolios, and will also permit licensing in larger new markets such as GSM handsets.” With the addition of these latest patents, Wi-LAN’s current portfolio totals 237 patents. Wi-LAN, founded in 1992, licenses intellectual property applicable to a full range of products providing access in the communications and consumer electronics markets. Some of the fundamental technologies covered by Wi-LAN’s patents include: CDMA, DOCSIS, DSL, V-chip, Wi-Fi and WiMAX. Wi-LAN has already licensed its intellectual property to a number of the world’s largest companies. For more information: www.wi-lan.com.
|
| |||||||||||||||||
